Oscar Isaac

Raleigh Ritchie is somebody we’ve been keen on for a while here at Sunset, but lately I’ve been unable to stop listening to his song “Bloodsport.” One of my friends told me the other day that he, too, has been unable to stop listening to “Bloodsport” ever since discovering it on my 2014 Spotify playlist. This inspired me to get to know Raleigh Ritchie a little bit better myself, so I reached out to him to see if he would participate in our Artist Picks feature.

Artist Picks is a series we do where we turn the tables and ask artists for their current music recommendations. It’s a fun way to discover art that’s inspiring creators, rather than just hearing the opinions of influencers like myself. We ask the artist to list 10 songs that they’re currently listening to, tell us why they picked that song, and we put together a playlist with all of their picks plus our favorite song by that artist him or herself.

One might think Raleigh Ritchie’s stunning music is enough to speak for itself, but there’s more to the man that I think you should know. First of all, his stage name is a result of Jacob Anderson’s (Raleigh Ritchie’s birth name) obsession with Bill Murray. He searched through every Bill Murray character he could think of, and eventually settled on names from The Royal Tenenbaums (Raleigh was Bill Murray’s character and Ritchie was Luke Wilson’s). The other thing worth knowing is that he’s also quite well known for his acting career – he acted in Game of Thrones and Adulthood. Not having seen either of those films myself, I trust that he’s a talented actor as well, but selfishly, am very glad he picked up music.

And just like his talents span multiple genres, so too do his musical tastes. I asked him to share 10 songs that he’s currently listening to on repeat, and they range from a quirky song that you might imagine hearing in a Wes Anderson film (mostly “Figure Eight” by Blossom Dearie) to an upbeat trap song (“My Different” by Big Narste). And there’s a whole bunch of variety in between.

Not all of the songs are available on Spotify, so pardon the couple of standalone extras. Hit the jump for the full song list with Raleigh Ritchie’s reasoning for each song and to stream all songs, including Raleigh Ritchie’s own “Bloodsport.”